Wayde’s world – Longwood and Avenel, Victoria

Murchison fan Wayde Petersen took no pleasure in seeing his team thrash Longwood in the opening game of the Kyabram District Football League. Here’s his report:

The Longwood photo is a sad one for me because I cannot help but feel that this will be the last time I will get to see football at Longwood. The club is in serious trouble, just like Swanpool, Tatong, Goorambat, to name a few others. I would love for Longwood to recover and fight on (their hospitality & friendliness is well known), but I can only see either a takeover from Avenel or the club disappearing all together, like Invergordon, Thornton/Eildon & Wunghnu, which have folded in the past few years.

Longwood was formed around before the turn of the 20th Century,and won premierships in the Euroa & District Association (1906,1908,1924,1934,1935 & 1936) and the Hume Highway League (1954). It then merged with Avenel until 1970. Standing on its own two feet again, it won flags in the Benalla District League in 1977, 1985 and 2000. These three leagues have all folded, the Benalla DFL the most recent, wound up in 2009 by the Victorian Country Football League.

Longwood then joined the Kyabram DFL in 2010, knowing it was a lot stronger than the old Benalla league, and although wins for the club have been few and far between, Longwood is a well liked club that treats its guests well. It is one road trip that I enjoy making every time Murchison are scheduled there.

The town of Longwood is nestled on the old Hume Highway between Avenel and Euroa, about 130km north east of Melbourne. The beautiful White Hart Hotel, an English style pub is well worth the stop for any day tripper. Have a beer there, you won’t regret it.

Photo by Wayde Petersen. Avenel v Murchison, 27 April 2013.

Avenel Football & Netball Club has marvellous new facilities, the best in the league. But the great new facilities haven’t transferred over to the scoreboard, which is painted in a distinctive royal blue & orange (Home Timber & Hardware once sponsored them, hence the colour scheme. It doesn’t match either the change rooms, which are painted silver, or the club colours of the red and white).

Avenel wear the old South Melbourne colours of white with a red V, collars, cuffs and shorts and red and white hooped socks. Avenel go back a hundred years or more, winning flags in the old Waranga North East Football League in 1910, 1921,1932 and 1933. They joined the Kyabram District Football League in 1976, and won senior premierships in 1978,1979,1985,1989 & 1994, along with plenty of reserves and Under 18 flags.

The Swans have produced a number of fine players throughout the years, including Ian ‘Bluey’ Shelton, a mainstay for Essendon in the 1960s and Barry Hall, after playing in the Under 18’s flag in 1994, forged a long, successful and eventful career with St Kilda, Sydney Swans and the Western Bulldogs.

Wayde Petersen is Scoreboard Pressure’s Goulburn Valley correspondent. His previous posts have been about Mooroopna, Nagambie and, of course, Murchison.

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One thought on “Wayde’s world – Longwood and Avenel, Victoria”

Longwood have gone all in for 2014 with a new coach in Matt Chilcott a number of new recruits and there seems to be a lot of good energy in regards to the Redlegs for next year, I’m not sure if they can totally rise from the cellar and into the giddy heights of finals footy & netty but they are giving it thier all for next season.

So to paraphrase the words of Mark Twain “The reports of Longwood’s demise are slightly exaggerated !”.

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"People can say what they like. There is only one thing that matters in AFL football and that's the scoreboard and it determines so many things. It determines coaches' destinies, club futures and where you are on the ladder." Denis Pagan, North Melbourne premiership coach, The Age, 5 May, 2016

Call us old-fashioned, but banners, club songs and plenty of goals - with or without giant birds flying out of multiple scoreboards - create the basic ingredients for a perfect day or night oout. - Caroline Wilson, The Age, 9 August 2014

"I didn't like the idea of them pulling down the scoreboard because I thought that should have been heritage listed." Bob Hill, Collingwood scoreboard attendant at Victoria Park from the late 1960s to 1999. The Age 24 May, 2014.

Scoreboards are stubborn things but they've been around a long time. Stats are always playing catch up.